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By 1968, Canada’s storied Department of External Affairs was under siege. The postwar decades of steady growth and diplomatic accomplishment were over.
Technological change and trade liberalization were
ushering in a new era of globalization. The economy
slumped and stagnated. Globalization stretched the
international agenda, adding novel issues: human
rights and woman’s rights; energy, science, and
technology; the environment; and global revolution
and terrorism. The new Prime Minister, Pierre Trudeau,
encouraged the Department of External Affairs to keep
up with the times.

External Affairs initially reeled under the assault,
struggling to respond to the enormous political,
economic, and domestic pressures of the era. Through
the 1970s, however, it steadily reclaimed its relevance.
It focused more of its efforts on economic diplomacy
and found the administrative mechanisms required
to reconcile its traditional global outlook with the
government’s domestic preoccupations, finally
merging with the Trade Commissioner Service in 1982.

Along the way, External Affairs helped craft innovative
policies to respond to the dominant challenges of the
era, including UN peacekeeping, decolonization and
the North-South dialogue, the Middle East and the Iran
Hostage crisis, and the ever-dangerous Cold War.

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University of Ottawa Press

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